Brunel

Brunel, ISAMBARD KINGDOM, engineer, only son of the following, was born at Portsmouth, 9th April 1806, and in 1823, after two years spent at the college of Henri Quatre, in Paris, entered his father's office. He helped him in the construction of the Thames Tunnel, and himself, in 1829-31, planned the Clifton Suspension Bridge, which, commenced in 1835, was completed only in 1864 with the materials of his own Hungerford Suspension Bridge (1841-45) over the Thames at Charing Cross (see BRIDGE, p. 445). He designed the Great Western (1838), the first steamship built to cross the Atlantic, and the Great Britain (1845), the first ocean screw-steamer. The Great Eastern (q.v.), the largest vessel ever built in the world, was built under his sole direction in 1853-58. In 1833 he was appointed engineer to the Great Western Railway, and designed and constructed the whole of the tunnels, bridges, viaducts, and arches on that line. Among docks at English seaports, in the improvement or construction of which he was engaged, may be mentioned those of Bristol, Monkwearmouth, Cardiff, and Milford Haven. Made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1830, he was chosen on the Council of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1845, and its Vice-president from 1850. He died suddenly, 15th September 1859. See his Life by his son (1870).